Chef Profile: Martin Burge
Martin Burge was brought up in Bristol and originally trained at Brunel Technical College. Having emerged with distinctions his first job was under Michael Croft at the Royal Crescent Hotel in Bath.
When Croft moved to London to run the kitchen at Mirabelle, 21 year old Burge went with him, before moving on to Pied a Terre under Richard Neat.
From there he went with work with Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons and worked his way up to junior Sous Chef. After three years he had the opportunity to go to Raffles in Singapore to support John Burton Race with a food festival. On returning to the UK he went to work with Burton Race at L’Ortolan, as senior Sous Chef.
Soon after joining, at the age of 27, he became head chef and moved with Burton Race to the two Michelin starred restaurant in The Landmark, London. For the last year that they worked together Burge was running the restaurant and retained the two Michelin stars whilst Burton Race was away filming ‘French Leave’, the 8-part Channel 4 cookery series.
Martin achieved his first Michelin star in January 2005, 18 months after Whatley Manor opened in July 2003. As Head Chef at Whatley Manor, in September 2008 Martin Burge also received the much coveted AA Four Rosette award.
Filed under: Awards, Chef Profiles, England, Restaurants | Tagged: Bristol, Chef, Chef profile, Martin Burge, Michelin